Young Parent Demonstration Program

We are thankful that great opportunities for achieving success are available in our community to support pregnant and parenting youth. These opportunities remove our "excuses" for why our youth cannot succeed any longer. Change is a "process" and not an "event" and we say to our youth "Yes We Can Achieve Success Now In This Time and We Are Delighted to Be Part of Your Success Team".

The Department of Labor (DOL), awarded The Dannon Project a Young Parents Demonstration Project that will expand the number of slots available to youth ages 16-24, who are pregnant or parenting, in school and out of school, to 400 male and female eligible youth over twenty-four months. Two hundred of the participants will be matched with trained mentors for an 18-month period while receiving the stepped up level of services and the other two hundred participants will receive the basic level of services available to all youth participants. Through the demonstration project, the DOL will determine what impact having a mentor makes on the participants outcomes compared to those who do not receive a mentor.

Prior to this new DOL funding, the local JC-WIA Workforce TDP funding provided short term allied health training opportunities leading to national certifications, job prep and placement, life skills, financial literacy, Character Counts, HIV Series, Integrity in the Workplace, Smoke Free Living, Pathways Out of Poverty, Community Service, Parenting Assessment and Training, peer to peer mentoring, case management and supportive services and follow up services. These services are currently available to 17-21 year old pregnant and parenting youth who meet JC-WIA eligibility. We are excited about this expansion of resources, which will allow us to serve more youth and their families to plan for and achieve success in their lives. The program also expands our training to include construction/green job training opportunities in partnership with the local CEFA program. Other partners include the local JC-WIA Workforce Office, DHR Food Stamp Program, Child Support, JOBS program, Family Courts, Jackson Olin Young Mothers Program to name a few.

If you know any 16-24 year old pregnant or parenting youth, both males and female, who could benefit from the short term training and certification services and job prep and placement, please have them to contact our office at 205-202-4072 to make application for this dynamic program that we know will impact our community for generations to come. Also, if you would like to serve as a mentor, please complete an application for consideration for training and placement to work with a youth for 18 months.

What We Need:

We need as many mentors as are willing to participate in the program, our goal is to have one hundred fifty to two hundred mentors match by the end of the year.

We are asking mentors to commit to at least 3 hours per month for an 18 to 24 month relationship. (it is our hope that after that time has ended there will be an ongoing friendship between the mentor and participant)

Communication hours depend solely on the time that the mentor has to dialogue with the participant via, phone, text, email etc…take a lunch, a walk in the park etc…,

Each mentor will receive two and one half hours of training prior to their match and we can work with you on the training time.

Per Willie.Watson@ci.birmingham.al.us training is done in group sessions and will focus on providing the mentor with the tools needed to address life issues and concerns of the participant. Issues such as family or education matters. Also some training in the areas of encouragement, guidance, self esteem...etc.

Every participant that is enrolled in The Dannon Project (TDP) will complete a participant profile. Each mentor will too.

The profiles provide an overview of the participant and mentor background. Similarities are reviewed…example: such as education…does the participant have a diploma or GED? What are the participants career and educational objectives? We try to get a feel for both and try to create a successful match.

A mentor may have more than one participant if she feels that she can manage more than one participant.

Every potential mentor will have to complete a background check, this is a requirement of the program and is designed to ensure that there is nothing on the mentors background that would prevent a mentor from working with a minor.

THANK YOU!

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The New Ribbon Campaign

TDP would like to introduce to you our NEW Green Ribbon Campaign! We hope by promoting our green ribbon campaign that it will raise awareness about the issues that previously incarcerated persons (PIP) face when reentering communities across America. Your support is needed to make this campaign a success.

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